Why Christians should NOT make “Christian” Films!

If I’m honest, I know that I’m not the best producer or director out there, and I may never be. So, when I made my first feature film, my main motivation behind it was to show other Christians how to make a film that was not a ‘Christian film’, but rather a good story, told well, with a Christian influence. In my film there are no, or little mentions of God, church, and no mention of Jesus. However, there is a strong overarching Christian message flowing through, of surrendering to God and salvation through grace.

While this film did ended up being picked up by a Christian film distributor, we only went with them because they said they could get it into Wal-Mart (which did happen). We knew that this film was made with the story put first, and what ‘message’ there was, was woven into the fabric of the story. Ultimately it was a Christian influenced film, targeting a non-churched audience, for the general movie viewing public. This is VERY different from making a ‘Christian’ film for a Christian, pew-sitting niche audience.

I love the idea of Christians within Hollywood raising up a generation of Christian film professionals, in order to create Christian influenced films from the inside, like The Influence Lab guys. This is what I attempted to do with my film, but there are other examples of Hollywood films and television which in no way would be classified or labeled as ‘Christian’, but do contain strong Christian messages or misc-en-scene.

Examples of a few modern ones are:

Riddick

Here Comes The Boom

Rocky Balboa

Man Of Steel

The Walking Dead (TV series)

Fargo season 2 (TV series)

I do have a vision for my own place within Hollywood, and I’m on the path, taking steps to prepare myself for that position, including completing an MBA, so that I’m ready for the day when God may open that door. I hope others are doing the same.